Not truly a horror film, but pretty decent in any case

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2012)

When I first heard about this film I completely wrote it off believing that it was a sequel to a Sandra Bullock movies that I simply was not interested in (that being 28 days). However, others told me that this simply was not the case, and was in fact a science-fiction horror film, so when I finally got to watch it for the first time round I repented of the fact that I had so pre-judged this film.
Basically this is a zombie film, though the term zombie, or living dead, is never used (in the same way that the term vampire is never used in I Am Legend, which indicates very good writing), rather they are termed as The Infected. The movie opens in a lab were some animal rights activists release a chimp, but the chimp is infected with the Rage virus, and when one of the activists is bitten, it sets off a chain reaction. More on the background to the Rage virus and the actions of the activists can be found in the graphic novel 28 Days The Aftermath.
28 days later Jim (Cilliam Murphy) wakes up in a hospital and discovers that London is completely deserted. Has he wonders around he encounters a couple of the infected (in the form of a priest) and kills him. Then he stumbles across a couple of survivors, and after hearing a radio message, travel to Manchester to attempt to find safety. Basically civilisation as far as we know it has completely collapsed and everybody is dead.
The main part of the film deals with the interactions with the remains of the army battalion whole up in a manor house outside of Manchester. In a way, the infected simply play a bit role in the film. We know that they are there, and we even encounter them, but they are not the major antagonist in the film, the remnants of the army are. As Major West (Christopher Eccleston) says, by themselves the men have no hope, but with women around, there is hope because they can repopulate the land. This is when things get desperate, as Jim must then outwit trained military personal (no mean feat in itself) and then rescue his two female travelling companions.
The film apparently has up to 8 endings, most of them resulting in Jim dying. It was suggested that Fox did not like an ending where Jim simply did not die, or it was too inconclusive, so the current ending, where all three of them are waving down the Finnish airforce jet was the one chosen. In the end, it was believed that this film was so bleak, that it had to have some sort of satisfying ending.